BBC Televises Its Last Beauty Contest

LONDON — The British Broadcasting Corp. has televised its last beauty contest, Miss Great Britain 1985, ending its involvement with the pageants on grounds that they are "an anachronism" and verge "on the offensive."

BBC Television's Channel 1, the lighter of the state-owned network's two channels, broadcast the crowning of 25-year-old Jill Saxby on Friday night and ended an era for its viewers.

The channel's chief executive, Michael Grade, announced last November that after January's Miss Great Britain contest, he would ban all beauty contests, saying they do not warrant national air time.